


Respite for the Restless

by pagerunner



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 16:41:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11650590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pagerunner/pseuds/pagerunner
Summary: It's been a difficult, troubling day. Sometimes the best you can do is reach for each other. Percy/Vex vignette, set at the mansion after episode 106. (Spoilers, however, are vague, since this fic has other priorities. Ahem.)





	Respite for the Restless

**Author's Note:**

> Just to get this out of the way: yes, nitpickers, I know that if you're going by any sensible ruleset, this is not how you dispel a seeming. Now _ask me if I care._

After it all, despite their exhaustion, they couldn’t sleep.

Percy’s head was too full, images clashing everywhere he turned. Ioun’s gift, such as it was, burned in his mind; so did the specter of Vecna, not to mention the memory of Delilah Briarwood’s hollow shell and all that it meant. He couldn’t make his thoughts stop racing. When Vex emerged from their room’s bath chamber, still patting her face dry with an oversized towel, he jerked upright where he was sitting at the edge of the bed. “Gods, Vex,” he said, before laughing at his own oath. Irony fairly dripped from it, in retrospect. “You startled me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Not your fault. It’s more that…” He blinked another odd afterimage away, then gestured to her. “In fairness, this _is_ a new look.”

She paused, like she’d forgotten, too. Then she discarded the towel and looked down at herself. She was mostly undressed, with only a shirt hanging loosely off her shoulders to brush the apex of her thighs, and so a significant expanse of magically disguised skin was exposed. “Oh.” Her lips twitched up. “The seeming. Hasn’t worn off yet, has it…”

“He’s terrible about remembering to drop those.”

“Yes.”

“It’s striking, though.”

“I thought so.” Vex looked back at Percy. “I know it’s a shallow question under the circumstances, but…do you like it?”

He gave her a good look. Vex had one hip cocked and her head tilted, blue hair spilling fetchingly over one shoulder. Percy reached for one of her hands, tugging her closer to the bed. “To be honest, I like _you_ better,” he said. “But the blue…”

“I like the hair. I’ve always wanted to try the hair.”

He reached up, smoothing one hand over it and studying the strands. They shimmered even in the dim room. Percy had no idea if that was part of the magic at work or if his headache was playing tricks with his vision, or if it was just Vex, still so marvelous to his eyes, but suddenly he could barely breathe, looking up at her like this. “It’s lovely,” he said at last, even though his voice cracked. “You’re lovely.”

“Oh, Percy.”

For lack of knowing what to say, he leaned forward, his cheek pressed to her breast. He could feel Vex’s breath hitch, but he was also able to catch his own, slowly and deliberately pacing it to match hers. Vex’s hands touched his hair. “Are you all right?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Is it all right not to know?”

“After everything that’s happened? I don’t think I know, either.”

“Good thing neither of us are the champion of knowledge, then.”

Vex’s laugh was almost silent, but Percy felt it. He nuzzled in a little, breathing her in, before drawing back to look at her again. Her hand was still in his hair, his whole body tingling. The woozy ache of his fading migraine had begun to transmute into something else.

Percy impulsively decided to pull her even closer.

As willingly as she followed, he wasn’t sure which of them was responsible for the tipping point, but soon enough Vex was in his lap, her arms twined around him. Under the curtain of her hair, pinned securely by her weight, he felt a long sigh escape him, and he tipped his head up to her, eagerly accepting her kiss.

That went on for a while, blissfully wordlessly. His awareness focused down to Vex in his arms and her breath on his lips, and the feel of her tongue delving into his mouth, greedily drinking in every sound he made. Then her hips rocked against his, making it obvious even through his clothes that her shirt was, indeed, all she was wearing. Percy groaned. Vex teasingly bit his lip. The way it made him jolt up against her wasn’t nearly as gentle, but that only made her grin.

“Percy,” she murmured, trailing one hand up and down his back. “Shall we?”

“Shall we what, darling?”

His question was reflex, really. He knew in a general sense, of course, what she was after. Still, Vex had a way of making her specific desires known, and he’d long since learned the pleasures of playing along. It took him a moment to read the look in her eyes, as altered as they were, and he was surprised to find that she meant something else this time. She was waiting for his cue.

"I think I’m feeling generous tonight,” she said lightly. “What do you need?”

He reached for a reply, then stilled. Another memory had struck him. She’d watched him as they left the library, and there had been such sympathy in her eyes. She’d helped Scanlan with his challenge, entirely rightly—Ioun had made her choice, after all—but still…she’d stood with Percy amongst the books. She knew.

Percy’s arms tightened around her, and for a minute it was quiet. Finally he answered, “I have what I need.”

“Percy…”

“I’m not lying. It’s complicated, but…it’s still true.” He drew back a bit, however reluctantly. “And you are under no obligation to…”

She rolled her hips again, knocking the air and the words from him. “Does this feel like I’m feeling obliged?”

“Fuck,” he breathed, before rallying enough to add, “No.”

“Well, then.” A different tone crept in, no matter how she kept on trying to sound careless. “Personally, I’d like something else to think about besides gods and villains and the end of the bloody world, so…”

Percy felt a new sort of ache creep in alongside the desire. He reached up to cup her cheek, stroking her skin, then silenced her with one thumb against her lips. She let that stand for only a moment before sucking it into her mouth. Percy shivered pleasurably. “You _are_ in a mood,” he said, feeling the graze of her teeth again as she let him go.

“Clearly, so are you.”

“And what sort of evidence are you going by?”

She arched one eyebrow before sliding one hand between them. Percy jumped again, almost laughing at his own reaction, when her hand closed over the distinct bulge in his trousers. “Fair,” he managed to say, and gave himself over for a moment to the heat and the needy throb of his blood beneath her palm as she worked him even harder. Then she was kissing him again, the feeling of it all-consuming.

She also pushed forcefully enough for them to both land on the bed together, and Percy took the chance to slide one hand beneath her shirt, feeling her arch under his touch.

The effects of the seeming spell were still strange, but somehow, that touch anchored him. Vex may have been bespelled to look unearthly—and maybe, he thought, with certain memories still fresh, there was a blessing burning within her that he’d never understand—but she _felt_ like Vex, and that soft little sound she made was unmistakable.

So was her intent when she reached up and eased his earring out of its piercing.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Vex reminded him, even while she set the earring safely aside. “If there _is_ something you need, or something you want…you'd better speak now.”

He didn’t so much think about it as feel the answer thrumming through him. He had to pull her close again to put it into words—he still felt too exposed to voice things like this otherwise—but he said it, no matter how roughly. “I just want,” he said, “to bury myself inside you.”

Vex shuddered deliciously. Her lips parted; her eyelids fluttered, going heavy. When she focused again, her gaze was electric. “Then we need to get you naked.” She bent all the way down to murmur the rest of her reply against his mouth, while she yanked at the fastenings of his trousers. “Right fucking now.”

There was really only one thing he could say to that.

“With pleasure,” he told her, and together they set to work.

—

Percy had lost track of how long the seeming spell was supposed to last, but it started to fade sometime in the afterglow, while he was doing his best to look after an exhausted but sated Vex.

They’d kept each other…occupied…for a long while. Percy was still trembling from the intensity of it, the bone-deep exertion. Vex was so frequently the one to call the shots about sex, but this time she’d invited him in, nakedly encouraging him to shed any restraint, and he’d let himself indulge. He was still marveling at how it had felt. He hadn’t let himself go like that in…

He thought about it. _Ever, possibly,_ he finished, and considered the dampened cloth in his hands. He pressed it to his own face, trying to cool down and breathe, before padding back to the bed.

After all of that, he had some care to tend to.

Vex, still sprawled across the bed, was taking the opportunity to stretch. He arrived in time to see her reach high above her head, her fingers brushing the headboard and her back arching gracefully, inevitably drawing his gaze again to her (perfect, by his estimation) breasts. After a moment of deliberate strain, she eased back down with a luxurious sigh.

“We have to do that more often,” she said.

Percy smiled faintly, settling in again by her feet. The bed creaked dangerously. Percy spared a moment to wonder about the logistics of repairing magically summoned furniture, then discarded it for other matters, like the sensitive flesh he was trying to wipe clean. Vex let out a tiny, involuntary sound and hitched one knee up when he found a particularly tender spot.

“Not _too_ often,” he said apologetically, lifting the cloth away.

“Oh, nonsense. I can cure bruises.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

She only looked down across her body at him, a small, strange smile playing at her lips. It felt like a more vulnerable moment than any that had just passed, somehow, and he breathed in deep, albeit a little shakily. Then he bent to press a kiss first to her belly, then between her legs. Vex whimpered softly when he did. No matter how exhausted she was, she lifted up to encourage the pressure when he licked carefully along her folds. He’d already cleaned most of their mingled mess away, but he could still taste her there, smell how aroused she’d been, and his cock gave one more hopeful twitch at the way she was responding.

He laughed once, low and rough, at his own body’s excessive optimism, then returned to trying to soothe them both back down.

Under his fingertips, the unnatural tint disguising her skin began to fade.

It was hard at first to see it, as dim as their room was and as inadequate his eyes. But while he started gently massaging her thigh, the difference in contrast became clear. He studied it thoughtfully. The blue wasn’t vanishing all at once. It was almost like—he spread his fingers wide, giving her one long, gradual stroke—he was wiping the illusion away, too.

He glanced up at Vex, thinking about it. Then with a mischievous flicker of a smile, he tossed his washcloth away and scooted back down to the foot of the bed.

“Percy?” Vex said questioningly, but by then he was already at work.

Starting with her feet—thumbs working at the arches, making her toes curl—Percy began making his way up her entire body. He chased the remnants of magic that clung to her, touching and stroking and pressing fleeting kisses to every bit of revealed skin. She whimpered again under it all, outright _moaned_ , and her hands clutched in his hair again when he reached her core, because he couldn’t help himself; he delved deep this time, licking and sucking at her still-swollen clit until she swore inventively and writhed against the bed.

He broke free of her grasp before she could chase down another orgasm, and he blithely ignored the extra curse she flung at him for that, because he wasn’t yet done.

“Percy,” she said again, tension tightening her voice. “Percy, I…”

“Ssh,” he whispered against her skin, then kissed her right breast, gently stroking the other with one hand. She made another needy little sound, pressing up against him. When he lifted up to see rosy color flush her skin, she fell back against the bed with a frustrated little huff. He had to be quick to stop her when she started reaching toward her center.

“Wait,” he told her, and held her hand aside, carefully, by the wrist. She pretended to resist for a minute, but there was curiosity in her eyes now, too.

Percy felt a flush of satisfaction. _Perfect._

Watching her intently, he trailed his fingers up the entire length of her arm. Like ripples in water, the spell tinting her skin there ebbed away. Vex, for her part, gave a ticklish little shiver and a gasp that was almost a yelp. Percy grinned. Vex’s eyes flashed right back, part in approval, part in challenge.

Their odd paleness was deepening into a rich, dark brown.

After one more long, intimate caress, he reached up to touch her face—and as a blush bloomed across her cheeks, he kissed her soundly.

They were still kissing when his hand traveled down and slid two fingers into into her, teasingly, deftly, urging her into coming one more time. She finally did, much more softly than before, with a flutter of her muscles and a cry that made his heart skip oddly before it subsided. When he slowly pulled free of her, she swore again and shivered at the sensation, but this time she was smiling.

For a few moments after, while they both came back down, they just held each other in the quiet.

They might have drifted off like that, tangled as they were, but Vex eventually stirred. Percy sat up enough to look her over properly. He wasn’t surprised now to see it, but the seeming was entirely gone. So for a minute he watched her, just her, Vex as she was meant to be, and he kept on watching until Vex gave him a funny, self-conscious sort of smile. “What is it?”

He reached over to brush her dark hair back into place, tugging one narrow lock forward far enough for her to see. He tilted his head toward it as if to point.

Vex got the idea. She looked at her hands, turning them over to study both sides. “Well,” she said, smiling crookedly. “That’s one way to cast a counterspell.”

“Maybe not one to try on the battlefield, though.”

“Or with most of our enemies.” She arched an eyebrow, enough energy returning to her for a tease. “Although I don’t know. That erinyes we met was pretty hot.”

Percy poked her in reply, and Vex laughed, the sound tired but genuine. Percy waited for it to trail off before he drew her close again. “Good to have you back,” he murmured into one ear.

She nodded sleepily, but also reached up and touched his chest, tracing back and forth through the hair there before flattening her palm. The press of her hand felt distinctly possessive. “I’m not leaving,” she said. “Not ever.”

“Vex…”

“We both made a promise, didn’t we?”

He bent and rested his forehead against her hair, letting his eyes drift shut. A very different memory than the ones that had been troubling him rose to the surface, and he held onto it as tightly as he did to her. “We did.”

She sighed, contented. “Then stay, and sleep. And tomorrow…”

“Save tomorrow for later. I think this is a better thought to go out on.”

“I…think you’re very much right.”

He kissed the crown of her head, lay back down, and let out a long breath when Vex settled in at his side. “Sleep well, darling,” she told him, kissing his shoulder in return. The way her touch tingled against his skin, there might have been a stealthy bit of healing magic in it, but he was already too far under to be sure.

And when all was said and done, since it was so often the wise thing to do, he did exactly as she said.


End file.
